In the company lot, Fords get the spots

The way Ken Hartog sees it, what he drives sends a message to neighbors who know he works at Ford Motor Co.'s assembly plant on the Far South Side of Chicago.

"If I pull into my driveway in a Toyota, what would that say about Ford?" said Hartog, a pipefitter from Lowell, Ind., who owns three Fords.

Besides, he said as he left the Torrence Avenue plant Thursday, "I gotta eat, and Toyota doesn't bring any food to me."

Like Hartog, the vast majority of employees at Ford's Torrence Avenue plant drive Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles, partly because they carry hefty employee discounts, but also because they protect their jobs.

Those who drive foreign brands get a daily reminder of who puts food on their table. Foreign cars are relegated to the lot farthest from the plant, about a half-mile from some workstations. Ford drivers get the close-in spots, under a policy agreed to by management and United Auto Workers Union Local 551. Violators get two warnings and are supposed to be towed for a third offense.

Two other Ford plants near Detroit have recently adopted similar policies that seem to have sparked more media coverage than rancor over what vehicles auto workers drive. Others are considering such a move.

Hartog says he has not heard of foreign cars being towed or damaged or verbal abuse being directed at owners of imports.

"You hear people saying things like, `You might think about trading that in on a Ford,' but that's about it," he said.

Assembly line worker Derrick Bruce of Dixmoor, who drives a 1997 Toyota Corolla, gets teased about his 15-minute hike from the area reserved for foreign cars, but has not been harassed by other workers.

"I'm 6-foot-2, 240 [pounds] and I work out, so I don't think they're going to try to do anything to my car," he said.

Bruce said his mother recently bought a Mercury Montego, a model built at the plant, and he plans to get a new car after he finishes buying a house.

"I'm going to get a Ford, if nothing else to park closer," he said, admitting that he dislikes the pressure to buy a Ford. "I make my money here, but now they want to tell me how to spend my money, and that's not right."

But Tom Pruim, an electrician at the plant, endorsed the policy as he headed to his blue Ford Explorer.

"They're not telling them they can't drive [foreign cars], just that they have to park over there," he said.

Chicago Ford dealer Lee Weinman also agrees with it.

"I only drive what I sell because it would send the wrong message to my customers and my employees if I didn't, even if it was a Jaguar," Weinman said. "Employees should support the company that puts the bread and benefits on their table."

Ford spokesman Dave Reuter said each plant sets its own parking policy. The contract for Torrence Avenue initially specified that all non-Ford vehicles had to be parked in the remote lot, but Reuter said it was rewritten to apply to non-Ford foreign brands because it penalized workers driving other domestic vehicles built by UAW members. Ford owns Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin, European manufacturers.

"Employees who don't drive a Ford or Ford family vehicle are expected to park farthest from the building," Reuter said. "Both management and the union consider it a reward for supporting the company by driving a company product and a means to discourage driving non-Ford products."

As a worker who identified himself only as Jay got into his silver Chevrolet Malibu at the plant Thursday, he said he drives a competing product because he couldn't get financing for a new Ford.

"As long as it's a UAW-made car, it's cool. If I had a Toyota or Lexus, that would be different. You have to support the people who support you," he said.

Though he has not encountered any flak over his 2003 BMW 330i, Butch Johnson of Valparaiso said he learned long ago that it pays to be careful. He parked his BMW in a remote spot before the current policy took effect.

When Johnson worked at a Ford plant near St. Louis, an employee who parked his new Toyota near the front of the employee lot found the car on its roof at the end of his shift.

"I know he never parked there again," Johnson said, adding that workers at the St. Louis plant, which is scheduled to close in March, were more militant about foreign cars.

Johnson said he drove Fords for years but bought a used BMW after Ford turned down his credit application for a new car. "Ford kind of did this to themselves," he said.

Foreign cars have been restricted at UAW plants and facilities for years, probably starting in the 1980s in response to increased sales of imports. At the UAW headquarters in Detroit, for example, signs still note that foreign cars aren't allowed in the lot. Some union locals have the same restriction.

American Motors Corp. adopted a policy years ago in which workers at its plant in Kenosha were allowed to park in the lot closest to the plant, those with non AMC vehicles had to find parking elsewhere.

General Motors Corp. has no policy on employee parking, and neither does Toyota at its North American plants.

"Absolutely not," said Toyota spokesman Dan Sieger.

What if a worker pulls in with a Chevrolet? "They are welcome, they come on in and can park next to the president if they want," Sieger said.

Does the president have to drive a Toyota? "That's a different issue altogether," he said.